Having a chore chart for your family is an important part of keeping your home clean and organized.

Without a chore chart, cleaning and everyday jobs either don’t get done, or end up being done by YOU alone.

Learning to do chores will help your children learn responsibility for cleaning up after themselves and help them learn to complete a job.

Our chore chart consists of three major areas of our home that need cleaned and monitored on a daily basis: kitchen, living room and the kids' bathroom.

My three older children are assigned a particular area for the week and then rotate to the next job the following week.

I attach their names on three different colored pieces of paper to the left of the grid and they can help rotate their name each week.

Vacuuming and dusting are on the chore chart, but I only have them do these twice in their week of having to do the living room. The other days, they have to just keep the living room picked up.

Whoever has the kitchen is in for a big week. They unload the dishwasher each morning - which really means putting the dishes they can’t reach to put away on the counter. Still, it’s very helpful.

They also set the table for dinner and help with the dishes each night. They especially like when all the dishes won’t fit in the dishwasher and we wash what’s left by hand. Something about little boys and water I guess…

It also gives us a chance to spend some time together – just two of us.

For their week of the bathroom and trash, they clean off the vanity and wipe it down with a Clorox wipe. They also wipe down their toilet. Then they’re responsible for emptying both of the bathroom trashes once or twice that week and taking out the big trash. They are also responsible for taking the baby’s stinky diapers to the outside trash.

Other chores that are required daily but are not on the chart are: brushing teeth, making their beds and cleaning their room. Other than cleaning their room, they don’t even need reminded to do these chores.

They are also in charge of putting away their laundry on the day I do laundry.

Never re-do any chores your children have done. This will de-motivate them. When my 3-year-old’s bed looks better before he made it than after, I just ask, “did you do your very best?” and leave it at that. I have showed him the correct way to do all of these chores and sometimes I help him to reinforce the “right way.”

He’s learning and getting better all the time.

I think it’s possible to do too much for your children. One day my husband was helping one of our boys get dressed. I think he was about 2 – and I could hear my husband saying, “OK, pull it over your head, now put your hand through this hole...”

It was like a bolt of lightning had hit me. Each day, I’d been going through the motions of taking care of this child and not once had it occurred to me that I could teach him to help himself!!

It’s easy to get caught up in routines, but once in awhile, you need to stand back and assess the situation and decide if your child might be ready for the next step.

Yes, it’s usually easier (and MUCH faster) to do it yourself. But your child learns nothing that way.

I do offer incentives. If the kids complete all of their chores every day that week, they get to choose a prize on Saturday. They can choose playing the computer or picking a prize from our “prize box.” The prize box has inexpensive items in it such as coloring books, paints, markers, small toys or games.

They love the chance to get a prize and usually get their chores done first thing on Saturday!

As you know, there is much more to cleaning and keeping a house going than the chores my kids do. But it has been SO helpful to me and takes a big chunk out of the chores I do.

Maybe I demand too much. I don’t know. But I do know that they are learning responsibility and valuable skills that hopefully will go with them as they grow.